10 listening games that will help your child learn to read

1. Sound hunt

I like to do this one when on a walk but it could be done inside just as easily. Encourage your child to listen for as many things as they can, and tell you what they hear. If you have an older child, get them to describe it and add details. If you’re doing this on a walk, you could do it each day and see how the sounds change. It can be fun to use a piece of paper to record everything you hear, but it’s not necessary. 

2. Red light Green Light

A great game to play outside. Tell your child that they’re going to pretend to be a car. When you say ‘red light’ they need to stop, like a car at the traffic lights. When you say ‘green light’ they can run again. 

Get your child to run around and periodically shout red/green light. This is great for multi directional attention as your child has to concentrate on where they’re going as well as listening to you. It also helps them burn some energy, which is never a bad thing! 

This game could also be played with music (Musical statues) which would require your child to listen to something different. This can be great for encouraging children to understand the rhythm in music too! (There’s always that one moment when it’s gone quiet but you haven’t paused the music!)

3. What sound? 

Children love this game as it involves being blindfolded! I find using an eye mask is the best way to play this game, but if you don’t have that you could always use a scarf or just get your child to cover their eyes (make sure they’re not peaking though!)

Get them to listen very carefully and then make a sound in your house. It could be ringing the doorbell, running water from the tap, or turning on a light. Encourage your child to name the sound you just made. This helps them identify the world around them and can help if your little one is nervous of noises in the night too, as they may find it easier to identify them! 

You could then switch roles (if you have nerves of steel and trust your child to be sensible while you’re blindfolded!) and get your child to make a noise for you to identify. 

4. I spy

I spy is one of my all time favourite games for kids because it can be used in so many different ways! The classic game is when you spy something that begins with a certain letter (I spy with my little eye, something beginning with S), but you can adapt it to be a listening game too.

Instead of saying a letter, describe what you’re seeing. Your child needs to listen to what you’re saying and see if they can guess what it is. This builds vocabulary and pattern recognition as well as listening skills as your child has to make sense of what you’re saying and match it to what they’re seeing.

I spy with my little eye, something that is green and has leaves.

With this example, it could be a bush or a tree, or a plant. You could keep giving more a more detailed description until your child works it out.

5. Simon Says

Another old favourite, you probably played this at school when your teacher needed a small break (I know I certainly used it like that!). It’s fantastic at getting children to concentrate on what you’re saying. They need to work out whether they should follow the instruction and what they need to do. 

Explain to your child that you’re going to give them some instructions, but they should only do it if they hear the phrase ‘Simon says’. 

• Simon says touch your nose  (your child touches their nose)
• Touch your nose (if your child touches their nose, say, ‘oops! I didn’t say, Simon Says!’)

This can be a hard one for children to understand at first, so don’t worry if they don’t get it straight away. Once they get the hang of it it often results in lots of giggling, particularly if you can get other family members involved and they get it wrong! As your child gets more used to this game, you could start to give more detailed instructions, such as ‘Simon says jump for 10 seconds’, or ‘touch your right ear with your right hand’. 

6. Copy cat game

Exactly like it sounds, to play this game, you do something and your child copies you! This could be sentences or words, or actions. For example, you could clap a rhythm, jump around the room, or stick out your tongue, and your child has to copy you. To make it a listening game, all you need to do is add sounds. Make sounds by drumming, stamping, or using your voice and encourage your child to copy, exactly as you did it. This helps them listen closely to what you are doing and have a go themselves. Not only does this build listening skills, but vocal skills too, which will help them to blend together sounds to make words later on! 

7. Did I get it? 

Similar to the previous game, this one asks your child to take the lead. You could tell them they need to be the parent or the teacher and you’re going to practice listening to them.

Ask the child to tell you something to say. Model listening carefully to your child and copy what they said.

• Child: Pretty pink unicorn
• You: Pretty pink unicorn

Then ask your child if you got it right. When they’ve had a few goes at this, start getting your part a bit wrong.

• Child: cat on the table
• You: cat on the mat

Ask your child if you got it right. Encourage them to say what you got wrong. I’ve found most children love correcting adults and it helps them listen carefully to what you say! 

8. The Whisper Game

This is the only game that requires more than two people to play. It could be done at the dinner table the the whole family is together. Start by telling your little one a word and get them to whisper it to the next person. The last person to hear the word tells the whole table. See how much it’s changed! 

To make it harder, you could try whispering short phrases or even whole sentences! The better everyone around the table listens (I’m looking at you, Uncle Jim!) the better the phrase will come out again. And if it goes wrong, it generally ends in giggles and laughter, so that’s good too! 

9. Drawing Instructions

All you need is a paper and pencil for this game. Sit your child down and give them instructions on what to draw. If your child is little, start with very simple instructions.

• Draw a circle.
• Put a smily face in it.

If your child is a bit older, you could include descriptive words and time words as well to make it a bit harder.

• Draw a large circle. 
• Put two small circles inside it, next to each other.
• Draw a curved line near the bottom of the circle.

It doesn’t matter how the picture turns out, only that your child followed the instructions! I love playing this game in my classroom and seeing how each child has interpreted my instructions differently. We can make some really amazing pieces of abstract art that way! 

10. Praise good listening

Okay, so this final one isn’t so much a game as it is a habit, but it’s the most valuable one. When they’ve done a good job at listening, try to use specific praise. This lets your child know exactly what they did that you liked and makes them more likely to try to do it again.

Try phrases like:

• Well done for listening carefully to the instructions.
• You concentrated really hard on the sounds, that’s brilliant! 
• What good listening you did today!

I hope you’ve found these games helpful and discovered some new ways to encourage listening in your child. Feel free to comment below with your favourite game or any other games you love playing! You can get even more games and activities to help your child develop reading skills by downloading my free pdf – 10 reading activities before ABC